


You've got all these questions

by lasvegas_lights



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:49:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25389319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lasvegas_lights/pseuds/lasvegas_lights
Summary: Nile has a lot of questions. Three moments in time when she asked questions. Some are answered, some aren't.Nile POV with plenty of Nicky/Joe
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 10
Kudos: 552





	You've got all these questions

**Author's Note:**

> My second story!   
> Again, this hasn't been checked for errors so hope you enjoy.

Andy leads her past the abandoned church and towards a building right next door which must have been used by the church at some point in history. The woman doesn’t look back to check Nile is still behind her but Nile follows her into the building. Nile still isn’t sure what’s going on or who she can trust but Andy has promised her answers to her many questions and she plans on sticking around until she has them.   
  
She can’t help but feel nervous. She’s about to meet other people like her after being kidnapped, killed twice and flown to a country she’s never visited before. She’s so far out of her depth she barely knows how she’s holding things together.   
  
Andy steps through the door first and Nile silently follows a few steps behind her. The room is dark and full of cold stone finishings but they’ve clearly made it homey with soft chairs and belongings scattered around the place. The occupants stop, turn and stare at her as she enters and she can’t help but feel a little self-conscious.   
  
She looks at each of them in turn. A dirty blonde man with a scruffy beard and a glass full of wine eyes her up from his position at the dining table. Standing by an old looking cooker is another bearded man, his skin darker but his eyes softer. Leaning casually against the counter next to him is the third man, young-looking with dark piercing eyes.   
  
Andy, who has lowered herself into a nearby chair, doesn’t seem interested in doing introductions and Nile just stands there on her own until the man at the cooker steps forward. He wipes his hands on his thighs and crosses the room, holding out his hand for her to shake.   
  
“Joe,” he tells her.   
  
“Nile” She takes the hand and shakes it.   
  
“Hello Nile,” Joe smiles at her and it’s the first friendly gesture she’s seen in a while. “Welcome.”   
  
The man who had been standing next to him comes up behind Joe and offers his hand out to her too. She doesn’t miss the other hand resting on Joe’s back or the way they seem so comfortable in each other’s personal space.   
  
“I’m Nicky,” The other man tells her. “And that over there is Booker.”  
  
She turns her head to the man at the table and he gives her a nod quickly followed by a gulp of wine which she makes a note of with an arch of her eyebrow.   
  
“You’ve been travelling for hours, you must be hungry,” Joe guesses.   
  
Nile hadn’t even noticed she was hungry until he said that. Her stomach rumbles on cue and Joe chuckles. “Sit, dinner’s just about ready,” he nods over at the table and she does what she’s told and sits down next to Booker.   
  
“Wine?” He asks gruffly, offering the bottle in her direction.   
  
“I’m good, thanks.”   
  
He shrugs as if to say ‘your loss’ and refills his own glass.   
  
As she waits for dinner, she finds herself observing this team she’s been introduced to. They look strong, certainly fit enough to fight, but are they really the army that Andy says they are? She begins to notice weapons, some hanging on the walls, others propped up against pieces of furniture. There are swords and axes and crossbows. Everything she sees just gives her more questions.   
  
Suddenly a bowl of pasta is placed down gently in front of her. Nicky and Joe take seats opposite each other and immediately tuck into dinner. The food looks good and she finds herself digging in almost as quickly.   
  
The room is quiet for a while as people eat (or drink in Booker’s case) and the silence unnerves her.   
  
“So,” She finds herself speaking up, “you good guys or bad guys?”  


* * *

Nile’s eyes shoot open, a piercing cry yanking her from her sleep. She has her own weapons now and she automatically reaches for the Beretta under her pillow. With her hand on the grip, she looks up and in the darkness sees Andy awake also, her eyes focused on the bed near the door.   
  
“What’s happening?” She asks, her voice still rough from sleep. Her question is answered a second later by Nicky who cries out sharply once more and then launches up and away from Joe’s embrace. Joe quickly follows him into a sitting position and as Nile’s eyes get used to the dark she can see the worry in the man’s eyes.   
  
Moonlight through the window highlights the sheen of sweat glistening across his face and neck as he heaves in lungfuls of oxygen. Each breath is loud and gasping and hs wide eyes flit around the room with a fear in them that Nile hasn’t seen before. He looks like a deer in headlights.   
  
“Nicolo?” Joe says softly. Nile watches him reach out carefully and slide a hand down Nicky’s shoulder. Nicky flinches but doesn’t shrug Joe’s hand off, “Nicolo” Joe repeats, his voice firmer second time. Nicky blinks and he’s back in the room with them all.   
  
With a speed that surprises Nile, Nicky jumps off the bed and slams his fist into the nearby doorpost “Damnit!” He shouts. He holds his almost certainly broken hand against his chest, and storms out of the room. They all hear the front door open and slam shut.   
  
Joe and Andy share a look.   
  
“Go” Andy tells him and Joe wastes no time in following after his love.   
  
Nile loosens her grip on the gun and sags back against the headboard. Adrenalin was still running through her system and as long as her heart was racing in her chest, sleep would be forgotten.   
  
“A nightmare?”   
  
Andy finally looks at her and nods slowly. “Our physical wounds may heal quickly, doesn’t mean we can’t be left scarred by our pasts” She explains. “We have all seen things, done things….lost things.”  
  
Nile tastes a bitter taste in her mouth, “And once again I’m reminded that there is nothing good about any of this,” She stares at the ceiling and doesn’t notice Andy moving until their leader is sitting on the edge of her bed.   
  
“You may think it is a curse, but there are blessings too, just give it some time”  
  
“Time is all I have remember?”   
  
“And us” Andy reminds her.   
  
Nile looks at Andy and then over to the doorway. “Is he going to be okay?”  
  
“Joe will take care of him,” Andy reassures her, “Try and get some sleep.” She rises up and returns to her own bed.   
  
She doesn’t remember falling back to sleep but she must have. She wakes again a few hours later to the smell of breakfast cooking in the other room and the beds next to hers empty.   
  
She groans but pulls herself out of bed, cleans up, pulls on some clothes and pads into the kitchen. She’s surprised, as she walks in, at the normalcy of the scene in front of her. Joe and Nicky sharing cooking duties happily, Andy sat at the table with a book and a mug of coffee. It’s like last night never happened.   
  
She passes the boys, sending them a smile as she goes and sits down at the table. Whilst she waits for breakfast, she finds herself watching the two men. They work around each other like it’s a dance, dodging collisions with easy whilst also finding moments to touch. Joe sweeps his hand across the small of Nicky’s back as he passes. Nicky tucks his head over Joe’s shoulder to see how the food is doing.  
  
“Don’t they ever argue?” She finds herself wondering and directs the question at Andy, sat across from her, her feet propped up on a spare chair.   
  
Andy glances up from the open book in her lap and her eyes briefly flick over to Joe and Nicky who are in the middle of flirting outrageously with each other. Nile is half expecting her breakfast to be burnt when it is dished up. Andy smiles softly and looks back down to her book “They ran out of things to argue about in the 1600s.”

Nile shakes her head. She has other questions but she's not sure when the right time to ask them is. Do they all get nightmares? How often do they occur? Do they talk to anyone about it?  
  
She blinks out of thoughts when a plate is lowered down in front of her. Nicky squeezes her shoulder and sits down beside her with his own plate. "I am sorry if I scared you last night"  
  
"Don't be" She insists. 

Joe has sat down too and he and Andy are both listening in to the conversation surreptitiously. She's learnt over the year since she's been part of the team that there's no such thing as secrets.   
  
"Are you okay?" She asks him. 

"Better now, thank you" He answers with an honest smile, his eyes leave hers and fall on Joe across the table. Joe winks at him and Nicky nods back. 

* * *

Nile is exhausted after a long day of covert surveillance for their latest job. Sitting in a car all day isn’t particularly fun, neither is walking for hours to keep an eye on their target. As soon as she arrives back at the safe house, she calls shotgun on the shower and heads straight for it without waiting for a discussion.   
  
After rinsing off in scolding hot water and changing into clean clothes, Nile is feeling human once again. It’s quiet when she steps out of her bedroom and goes in search of the others. Walking back into the open plan kitchen living area, she finds the room empty apart from Nicky who’s methodically cleaning his sniper rifle at the kitchen table. Each piece has been separated and laid out carefully across the wooden surface.   
  
She finds herself looking around in confusion. “Where’s Joe?”  
  
Nicky looks up at her, “Hmm?”  
  
“Joe?” She repeats.   
  
Realising what she’s asking, Nicky lets out a laugh and shakes his head, “We’re not joined at the hip you know,” he pats his hip bone for emphasis.  
  
Nile blinks, “No, of course.”  
  
“He and Andy are out getting dinner, they’ll be back soon,” Nicky explains before returning to the task in front of him.   
  
Nile moves further into the room and slides down into a chair opposite Nicky. “Need any help?” She offers. With a lot of time now on her hands, she has struggled with finding things to fill it. Training and missions only take up a small proportion of her days. The team often suggest books to read or skills to learn but she hasn’t had the concentration levels for any of it so far.   
  
Watching Nicky work, it isn’t the first time she has witnessed the care and attention they take in a job. When you can possibly live for thousands of years, spending days, weeks, or months on a particular project seems like nothing. She wonders how long it’ll take her to be like them, to be able to slow down and focus like there’s all the time in the world. Whilst she knows she’s immortal, has experienced returning to life after being killed, a part of her still feels mortal. It'll probably take a decade or two before it really sinks in.   
  
Nicky’s lips spread into a smile but his attention never wavers from the scope in his hands. “Thank you, no, this relaxes me.”  
  
Finding her gaze once again wandering, Nile looks over the gun pieces in front of her and then over to the sharp and recently polished sword propped up against the wall nearby.   
  
“Nicky?” His eyes flick up to hers and immediately back down again and she takes this as a sign to continue. “Do you remember the first time you were shot?”  
  
His hand polishing the metal hesitates for a second. He doesn’t say anything for a long time and then finally he nods, “As much as I would like to forget.”  
  
Realising she’s probably bringing up bad memories, she winces, “I’m sorry, still trying to figure out what I can and cannot ask.”   
  
She watches as he stops completely and lays the piece back on the table with the others. “You can ask anything,” he replies, meeting her eyes to let her know he’s serious. “Just because we don’t always like to remember doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get to ask the question or get the answers.”  
  
“You sure?”  
  
His answer is a soft smile, the kind of smile he normally reserves for Joe. “Guns used to cause a lot more damage back then. Wasn’t pretty. Hurt like a motherfucker but better than a cannonball to the gut I suppose.”  
  
“And now it just stings?” Nile asked wryly.   
  
Nicky laughed, “No, but you do get used to it.”  
  
Nile sighed, “I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to being shot and walking away from it.”  
  
“You will,” Nicky said confidently.   
  
Nicky’s answer just leaves Nile with more questions and she opens her mouth to reply but stops when the front door swings open and Joe and Andy step back into the apartment, each holding a bag of groceries. As Joe passes, he ducks down to press a kiss to Nicky’s crown. She smiles at the subtle way Nicky’s body relaxes at the gesture. They may not be joined at the hip but they still complete each other in a way that makes Nile worry what might happen if they ever get separated.   
  
“What are you two talking about?” Andy asks, following Joe into the kitchen area. She immediately begins to unpack the bag and find homes for the ingredients.   
  
“Oh,” Nicky picks the scope back up again, “Just small talk” He winks at Nile before resuming his cleaning.   
  
“That better be all back in one piece in the next hour, we’re going to be needing that table for dinner,” Joe says as he retrieves a chopping board and a knife from the other side of the kitchen.   
  
“Yes dear,” Nicky grins. 


End file.
